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Safety and security top agenda at African Union summit

28 July 2010 22:57 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. African Union (AU) leaders yesterday agreed to send a further 2,000 troops to boost the AU’s 6,000-strong peace-keeping force in Somalia. This follows the July 11 bombing attacks in the Ugandan capital when 76 people died while watching football’s world cup final at two separate venues, APA reports quoting guardian.co.uk website.
The additional support is to help prop up the country’s UN-backed government, under severe pressure from the militant Somali-based al-Shabab group, which has claimed responsibility for the attacks in retaliation against the large presence of Ugandan troops in Somalia. The group controls large parts of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, and most of the country as a whole.
The leaders were attending the African Union summit that ended yesterday in Kampala, Uganda. At the summit Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni reiterated his resolve to maintain Ugandan forces in Somalia, and was quoted in the Daily Nation as saying: "Let us now act in concert and sweep them [the terrorists] out of Africa."
Security measures have been tightened and a forthcoming international cricket match between Uganda and Namibia has been moved from Kampala to Windhoek (Namibia) by the International Cricket Council, reports AllAfrica.com.
Hard-pressed doctors at Kampala’s Mulago national hospital who are treating dozens of patients injured in the bombings have been boosted by the addtion of 10 medical experts (mainly from Nairobi, Kenya) in neurosurgery, orthopaedics, anaesthesia, intensive care and psychology. Uganda’s Independent newspaper says they have been sent by the African Medical and Research Foundation (Amref), one of the Guardian’s partners on the Katine project, in response to a Ugandan government request.
Latest terror suspect arrest
Ugandan police have arrested the latest foreign suspect in the hunt for terrorists behind the July 11 bombings. According to the Daily Monitor, an Eritrean woman suspected of being the fiancee of one of the suicide bombers has been detained. At least 21 suspects being held are said to be directly linked to al-Shabaab.
Police chief Major General Kale Kayihura told the paper the police suspect the group brought at least six bombs into the country. "So far three went off, one was found and the other are two are yet to be found."
Health key issue at summit
African Union members at this week’s summit have agreed to form a group to monitor and report on the progress of maternal, infant and child health - the key theme of the conference, said Jean Ping, chair of the AU Commission, at the end of the summit yesterday.
Quoted in New Vision, summit chairman President Bingu Wa Mutharika of Malawi added that leaders had agreed to prioritise the welfare of women and safe motherhood at the top of their development agendas this year. "If we improve the welfare of women, access to food and health care, maternal mortality will significantly reduce," he said.
The summit also launched a programme for infrastructural development in Africa and adopted the African charter on maritime transport, elected human rights commissioners, and set up a chiild health committee.
Malaria was the subject of a special summit session of the African Leaders Malaria Alliance to assess progress in sustainable malaria control and in removing tariffs and taxes on anti-malarial imports, according to Vanguard.
In the same week as the summit, East African Business Week reports an expansion of the United Against Malaria (UAM) campaign to Uganda’s under-13s in a series of football tournaments across the country over the next two months. One of the goals of the drive is to educate the public about malaria through use of football, says the UAM coordinator Kenneth Malumbo.
"As they play football we intend to constantly remind them about prevention, treatment while educating their parents and well-wishers who will attend the matches."
Uganda has one of the highest incidences of childhood mortality caused by malaria. In April this year the Daily Monitor reported that around 300 Ugandans mostly pregnant women and young children were dying every day from malaria.
Ministry of health figures state the annual economic cost of treatment for and absence from work is more than USS600m a year. The Daily Monitor says at least one in four households in Uganda spend their annual income on just treatment for malaria - a major cause of poverty across the country.
Buganda close to bankruptcy
Uganda’s largely autonomous kingdom of Buganda is going broke, according to the Observer.
Treasurer Mukasa Nagawa said last week that the continuing closure of the kingdom’s independent-minded CBS radio station due to a central government media crackdown is costing Buganda Shs 31m in lost earnings each day.
Nagawa said the Ugandan government still owed Buganda a promised Sshs 9bn from the last financial year and a further Sshs 21bn for 16 years of prison rent arrears incurred by Uganda’s ministry of defence for use of ??? prison in??. With no broadcasting channel - CBS was forced off air last year - she said the kingdom was also unable to advertise the sale of Bugandan certificates - another major income stream.
Moves to get the radio station back on air have failed so far. The Observer has learned that the risk of CBS providing airtime to a new Buganda-based political pressure group, Ssuubi 2011 - whose aim is regime change, according to the newspaper - was felt to be too great by Uganda’s National Resistance Movement government and likely to "confuse" its voters in Buganda.
Fishing farming given government boost

Plans to reduce poverty by promoting large-scale fish farming across eastern Uganda were spelled out last week by the country’s fisheries minister, Fred Mukisa, reports New Vision. Mukisa was speaking at the commissioning of the Last Chance Fish Farm project, a community-based group of 300 fish farmers in Mayuge district.
Uganda’s eastern districts are rich in water resources, near to or bordering the shores of Lake Victoria and also containing large underground water reserves. To offset a reduction in traditional fish stocks, the minister said the government would be supplying farmers with pond excavation equipment, training and a stock of fingerlings for a programme starting early in 2011. He said training would be provided to farmers either locally or in Egypt, the country seen as a role model for fish farming in Africa. Initial districts affected would be Bugiri, Butaleja, Iganga, Manafwa, Mayuge and Sironko.
The minister added that a third of the 30 planned cold rooms were built, each capable of handling over 5.5 tonnes daily. The fish industry is a large employer in Uganda, with over 500,000 people working directly in the sector.